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The country is divided over whether the Conservatives' anti-terror bill goes too far. The jury is still out. But a new poll suggests even if it does, 40% of Canadians don't care. So long as it gets the job done.

A Leger Marketing poll exclusive to QMI Agency put this statement to Canadians: "In order to curb terrorism in this country, I am ready to give up some civil liberties."

The takeaway isn't that the disagrees barely squeak out a win. It's that so many Canadians are OK with giving up their liberties.

The only thing that softens it is that only a quarter of the 40% are in the "strongly agree" category.

Breaking it down, the number rises to 43% for men, with women at 37%. Geographically, Quebecers are least willing to give up their freedoms at 31%, while more than half of Albertans (56%) trust the government.

In terms of age, 55% of seniors agree, compared to just 29% of the 25-34-year-old crowd.

The poll doesn't break it down by voter intention. But you can bet -- based on those age and location numbers -- that Conservatives are more inclined to say yes.

In some ways, none of this is surprising. It's natural to expect Albertans to be more in favour of conservative notions and for the young to reject them.

But keep in mind, this poll isn't asking questions like "Are you worried about terror in Canada?" or "Do you want the government to aggressively fight radicals?" No, it's asking a far stronger question.

So if 40% of people are saying yes to the hardcore question, it's fair to assume that a significantly greater percentage still want to see firm action on the anti-terror file.

Politicians need to remember this. They can't assume voters are totally against the government on this matter just because 60% of Canadians aren't OK with warrantless searches or having their phones tapped.

As I'll argue in greater detail in Sunday's papers, this is a lesson Tom Mulcair and his New Democrats in particular need to learn. He's come out so firmly against C-51 that he's definitely sitting in "soft on terror" domain. Trudeau wisely veered the Liberal caucus away from there.

If Mulcair doesn't wise up, his party could be in big trouble in the next election.

That said, the Leger data also shows it's not like Canadians have rushed to adopt these views following last October's homegrown attacks in Ottawa and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. The polling company has been asking Canadians the same question on behalf of the Association for Canadian Studies since March 2012. There's always been substantial agreement with the statement. The lowest response Leger ever received was 30% support back in November 2012.

The most curious nugget from previous polls is the February 2014 data that breaks responses down by religion. On that occasion the national average of respondents who were willing to give up some civil liberties was 33%. Jewish respondents hit the average, but Muslims exceeded it at 39%. "Other" was 35%.

It's curious that Muslim Canadians are more willing to give up their liberties to fight terror than others. Does it mean they're more worried? More trusting of the state? Feel obliged?

The only caveat -- and this goes for all respondents, not just Muslims -- is we don't know precisely what civil liberty forfeitures folks have in mind. The only thing we do know is that many Canadians are clearly serious about tackling terror.